Lady Bears Stymied by Staten Island, Fall 68-56

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Sophomore Samantha Retas (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) recorded her fifth double-double leading three Lady Bears in double figures, but the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team dropped a 68-56 decision to the College of Staten Island on Saturday afternoon on the road at the CSI Sports & Recreation Center.

The Lady Bears (4-5) fall below .500 after having won four of their previous five games while the Dolphins (6-4) have won six out of their last seven and improve their record in the all-time series to 14-1.

Retas led St. Joseph's pouring in a career-high-tying 23 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and swatting away three shots, all game highs. The sophomore shot an efficient 8-of-15 from the field going 3-of-7 from beyond the arc and also dished out a team-high four assists.

Senior Teresa Mangan (Cleveland, OH/St. Joseph's) contributed 15 points while collecting five caroms and dishing out three assists with two thefts. Senior Janine Doran (South Ozone Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) nearly picked up a double-double scoring 10 points and bringing down eight rebounds.

Staten Island was led by freshman Lisa Galasso who scored 16 points while assisting on five buckets. Also scoring in double figures for the Dolphins was senior Olivia Tierno with 15 points while bringing down eight rebounds and giving out four assists and sophomore Megan Myhre who contributed 12 points. Junior Melanie Johnson nearly had a double-double scoring nine points and securing 11 rebounds.

St. Joseph's opened up the scoring with a Retas free throw that gave the Lady Bears a slim lead but the Dolphins took the lead and led by as many as five until a Retas trey put St. Joseph's ahead 13-12 just past the 13 minute mark.

Staten Island scored the next seven points to take back the lead for good, balloon their advantage to 10, 32-22, before back-to-back jumpers by Mangan trimmed the deficit to six, 32-26 heading into the locker rooms.

A Retas free throw and a Mangan three pointer to open the second stanza completed an 8-0 run from the first half and cut the Staten Island lead to two, 32-30, with 17:11 left in regulation. 

That was the closest St. Joseph's was able to get as the Dolphins outscored the Lady Bears 20-9 over the next seven minutes building a 13-point lead, 52-39, at the midway point of the half.

Staten Island continued to extend leading by as many as 16 points, 57-41, but St. Joseph's brought the deficit to single digits, 63-55, on a Mangan trifecta with one minute left but the Dolphins sealed the victory from the charity stripe.

The Lady Bears won the battle on the glass, 47-35, but were unable to capitalize shooting only 33 percent from the field (19-of-57) for the game, 32 percent from beyond the arc (7-of-22), and 55 percent from the foul line (11-of-20).

The Dolphins were able to take advantage of their trips to the charity stripe shooting at a 74 percent clip outscoring the Lady Bears by six points at the line. Staten Island also won the turnover battle, having an 18-11 advantage in points off turnovers as they forced 21 St. Joseph's miscues.

The Lady Bears return to action on Friday, December 28th beginning a two-game California trip taking on Association of Division III Independent foes University of California, Santa Cruz in a neutral site game played at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California. Tip-off is slated for 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Live stats will be available on www.SJCBears.com.